Just Another Case Of History Repeating Itself? 6 Weeks On From Wembley

A warm hearty Tilehurst End welcome to our newest writer Chris Hartley who shares his thoughts on the play-off final 6 weeks on.

It has been two long months since Phil Dowd blew the final whistle on another Reading Defeat in a Playoff final, the clubs third and in my opinion it was this defeat of all the defeats in Playoff Finals that wrangles most with me.

The Play-off Ticket Experience – Part Two

Yesterday we looked at the experiences of those who bought play-off final tickets in person at the Madejski Stadium, as reported to The Tilehurst End in the survey we ran in the weeks before the final.  Those experiences were almost universally positive praising the whole ticket-buying process and especially the efficiency of Sales Centre staff.

Today, in the second part of this four-part series, we look at the experiences of those who purchased tickets by phone from the ticketing agency TicketZone.   And if you’re wondering what the other two parts are, tomorrow we’ll look at those who purchased tickets from Ticketzone over the internet, and then we’ll tie these three strands together with an analysis of the whole tickets system, how it came about and what we’re doing with the survey results.

The Play-off Ticket Experience – Part One

Now that the pain of the play-off final is starting to recede, The Tilehurst End has analysed the results of the survey we ran in May about the pain that so many experienced in the weeks before the Final – the purchasing of tickets.

Dear Mr Rodgers

Defeat is never easy to take, but that 4-2 loss at Wembley was particularly painful not only because of the occasion and what victory would mean, but because the opposition manager was our manager last season – and was a flop after the hype surrounding him.

After the jump you will be able to read my ‘letter’ to Brendan Rodgers, a man I used to like.

The Play-Offs – You Can Keep Them Thanks

June 1, 2011

We’re always keen to hear from Royals fans on their views and experiences and today we’ve got a piece written by Mike Alexander on the Play-Off Final experience. 

If you’d like to submit anything to the site please don’t hesitate to email us at Thetilehurstend@gmail.com or via our twitter or Facebook page. 

Match Review: Reading FC 2-4 Swansea City – Wembley

May 30, 2011

So we’ll be playing in the Championship next year? Sadly so, a 4-2 defeat to Swansea sees them take the final promotion place, not us.

The Team? Federici, Griffin (Robson-Kanu), Harte, Khizinishvili, Mills, Leigertwood, Karacan, Kebe, McAnuff, Hunt (Church), Long.

Attendance: 86,581

MOTM: Jem Karacan, the guy never stopped working and was so very nearly the hero, seeing his goalbound shot deflected onto the post.

Below, I’ll be chewing over yesterday’s result and looking at what could have been.

Made a note in my diary – simply said “Bugger”

So, Christmas day has been and gone, and after all the expectation the exquisitely wrapped present turned out to be just a lump of
coal.

Perhaps the big mistake was investing so much emotional energy into the game, but in many ways that’s unavoidable.  It’s been interesting over the past couple of weeks to see the differing excitement levels of different Reading supporters.   The youngsters who’ve never experienced a play-off final before, have been massively excited and completely invested in the final, but the older heads have been a bit different.   As well as being more world-wise and cynical, they’ve (or rather we’ve!) started off being a lot more detached, and refusing to get fully drawn into the excitement – possibly as a defence mechanism.    

Play-Off Final – Media Previews

May 29, 2011

As promised here is a comprehensive rundown of all the media previews ahead of tomorrow’s game.

Less than 24 hours left to go!

Wear A Scarf To Wembley For The Royals

Westie from West & Williams and the Reading Football Fancast has come up with the following campaign to help back the boys at Wembley and at the Tilehurst End we’re more than happy to back it!

A friend of mine came up with a great idea today to back the Reading boys at Wembley!

We at the Reading Football Fancast have named it Wear A Scarf For The Royals!

Imagine turning Wembley into a Celtic/ Liverpool style Kop!! Imagine the massive boost this will give the Reading players as they see 40,000 people with their hands aloft and a blue and white scarf displayed proudly between every Reading Fans hands!

So back the Reading Football Fancast Campaign

And

Wear A Scarf For The Royals!

Come on You Royals

Tell everyone you know and lets make this a final to remember!!!

Match Preview – May 30 – Reading FC v Swansea City (Play-Off Final)

Reading FC Match Preview – May 30 – Play-Off Final  v Swansea City (Wembley)

So What’s At Stake Here? Only about £90 million pounds and a place in the biggest league in club football

And Who Are Standing In The Way? In case you’ve been living under a rock, Swansea City who finished third in the league and beat Nottingham Forest in the play-off semi-finals.

Any former Royals? Swansea’s manager Brendan Rodgers had 6 months as our manager here last season and spent a good 10 years here as a coach.

Can I Still Get A Ticket?  At the time of press (1pm May 27) there were a handful of tickets available in person at the Madejski Stadium.

Any Bits of Key Info About Wembley? Reading have provided a full Q+A which can be found here

TV Coverage? Yes the game will be live on Sky Sports One and in Sky 3D from 2pm

Newsbites – 25th May 2011

Newsbites – 24th May 2011

Just 5 days to go until Wembley and the news has gone a bit quiet today, the calm before the storm I suspect! anyway here are today’s main Reading FC stories. 

Karacan out To follow Harper & Sidwell at Reading FC – Get Reading

Jem Karacan talks about watching Steve Sidwell and James Harper when he was in the Academy and talks a bit about what his role might be at Wembley.

Griffin looking forward to marking Sinclair at Wembley- Get Reading

Another piece in Get Reading, this time about our right back Andy Griffin and how he’s relishing the challenge of marking Scott Sinclair in the final.

Play-Off Final Tickets – How was it for you?

At The Tilehurst End we’re interested in getting a much better idea of how the process of buying Play-Off final tickets was for everyone – both good and bad!   We know some people experienced problems, but we want to get a better idea of just how widespread this was.  We’re already in contact with Reading FC, the Football League, Ticketzone and Wembley, and we’d like to be able to tell them – objectively –  how it all went for everyone (good and bad) rather than give them a list of problems.   So we’ve put together a quick survey to help us with this.

(Ticket) System of a Down

At The Tilehurst End we’ve received a few emails and a fair number of tweets at about Reading’s ticketing arrangements for the Play-Off final, so we thought we’d take a look at what’s been good and what’s been bad about these, three days into tickets sales.   The club received a lot of criticism for decisions they made prior to the FA Cup Quarter-Final with Manchester City, so just how do the decisions they made before this match stand up?